Eric Holder was back in front of the House Oversight Committee today to testify on Operation Fast and Furious. For those unfamiliar with the crimes, consider it like Watergate, only with 300 dead -- including Brian Terry, a U.S. Border Patrol agent killed by murder weapons supplied to drug cartels by Eric Holder.

During testimony, three particular quotes struck me as especially memorable:

Reader Matt M. wrote to mention that "Patriot Nurse"--a well-known and respected YouTube video blogger on medical preparedness--has been making the wrong people angry with her prep-minded medical channel. She has been given an ultimatum to either remove some her videos about vaccinations or face get fired from her nursing job. This is absurd censorship, given that she has never mentioned her name or where she works in any of her videos. I noticed that she just switched her some of her videos to the "Private" category. This is a sad day for our First Amendment rights. I recommend that she move to the American Redoubt, where most employers are far less dictatorial and Nanny-nosey.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS), a division of the Library of Congress, has very recently given a bit of a boost to newly introduced legislation that would get the Keystone XL Pipeline project moving. A shovel-ready, jobs-creating project funded by TransCanada would bring crude oil safely and inexpensively from Alberta, Canada to Gulf Coast refineries. Senate Bill 2041 would “approve the Keystone XL pipeline project and provide for environmental protection and government oversight.” And respect for state and local laws, along with private property protection rights are built into the legislation.

President Obama denied a permit to implement the pipeline proposal on January 18 saying the White House and State Department didn’t have enough time to review all the material and make a decision. However, an earlier Keystone project was approved and up and running in less time than the three years Obama has taken to reject this one. He continues to insist that he is committed to “American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil.” Which, if evaluated on face value, is not exactly an endorsement of the Keystone project.

A January 20 legal analysis by CRS attorneys stated that “[I]f Congress chose to assert its authority in the area of border crossing facilities, this would likely be considered within its constitutionally enumerated authority to regulate foreign commerce,” despite the fact that traditionally and historically, the executive branch has always handled “foreign affairs” alone.

Whether 20,000 jobs or 100,000 jobs will be created or positively affected, this country needs to keep the crude oil, which is still what America runs on, flowing in abundance, especially given the mounting war-like tensions in the Middle East. Also, if TransCanada is put off for too long, they will likely take their wares elsewhere.

There is another bill in the House that has some support but takes a different approach. H.R. 3548, the North American Energy Access Act would turn the permitting process for Keystone over to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. If FERC can’t decide in 30 days, Congress would get a crack at it. A FERC official already testified that 30 days isn’t enough time to make a “defensible decision." Besides, as a federal agency with commission members appointed by the President, would approval be given via the FERC route anyway? Or would this be delaying the project further until TransCanada just gives up and moves on?

Naturally, many extreme environmental groups oppose the project and are very adept at vocalizing and demonstrating their minority stance. With 44 co-sponsors in the Senate, this important project needs a big push from the tax-paying, hard-working electorate to get the necessary 60 votes in the Senate.

"This site is dedicated to the Relic Hunter and Treasure Seeker. Be it Civil War, Colonial or otherwise, this is a place for you to call home and discuss the subjects and that part of the hobby that we really enjoy. It is said that 'History is who we are' so then, it is up to us to preserve 'who we are' by saving our history. Everyone of you are patriots for going out each day and seeking to save those pieces of our heritage that our ancestors and forefathers left to the pages of time. It is up to us to save these historical items for future generations to prove that our history WAS real and tangible. Every relic uncovered is another piece of our heritage preserved!"

Josh has a Bachelors degree with dual majors in both History with an emphasis on the Civil War and Political Science/Pre-Law, from Old Dominion University, and is presently working on his Masters Degree. Josh has also studied archaeology and made friends with some folks who were able to provide him with the distinct honor, pleasure, and privilege of excavating with the Archaeological Dept. of William and Mary University at the Jamestown settlement for 3 continuous summers. (I'm green with envy!)

Josh and I have both been invited to participate in the 21st Diggin' in Virginia event next month. The DIV events are invitational Civil War relic hunts held several times a year. We use the same machines and I'm hoping Josh can give me some pointers with one of those units. Hopefully, I'll have some video and photos pf our finds to post after the event.

Because Attorney General Eric Holder has just testified that he spent another year hiding in a hole, oblivious to what was going on in his department or even what was in his inbox.

In testimony before Darrell Issa’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Holder’s defense was -- in the words of one DEMOCRAT -- the “Sergeant Schultz defense”: “I know nooothing!”

This, notwithstanding the fact that there were no fewer than seven memoranda sent to Holder (as early as July, 2010) briefing him on the Fast and Furious Operation, and the fact that his department was intentionally allowing guns to go across the border to Mexican drug cartels.

Those guns have already resulted in the deaths of over 300 Mexican nationals, in addition to U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry.

Yet, Holder smugly asserted that he didn’t have time to read memoranda forwarded to him by his subordinates detailing criminal conduct by his department under his watch. (Never mind Holder’s assertion today that his management style was one that is “hands on.”)

Which leads to this question: Could a hedge fund manager escape culpability by arguing that he didn’t read letters from his subordinates or attorneys warning him of criminal misconduct?

And another thing: What was Eric Holder doing that was so important that the deaths of 300 people didn’t warrant any of his “precious” time?

Let Holder explain to the families of the dead that their lives were trivial because he was so busy promulgating illegal regulations governing multiple gun sales reporting, unlawfully banning shotgun importation, and unconstitutionally justifying non-recess recess appointments.

Holder protested that questioners were “disrespecting” his office. But Holder has dragged his office and his department into the cesspool. The proper response to him is: “Disrespect? What about 300 murdered Mexicans?” It is time for him to go.

The inaugural Short Film Audience Award, Presented by Yahoo!, based on online voting for nine short films that premiered at the Festival and are currently featured on Yahoo! Screen, was presented to:

The Debutante Hunters (Director: Maria White) — In the Lowcountry of South Carolina a group of true Southern belles reveal their more rugged side, providing a glimpse into what drives them to hunt in the wild.

New images of an uncontacted Peruvian tribe reveal a small band of people, clad in little more than beads and bands of fabric, sitting by a river in the southeastern part of the country.

The photographs, released by advocacy group Survival International, are the closest-ever glimpse of uncontacted Indians ever caught on camera, according to the organization. They provide considerably more detail than earlier images taken from aircraft over settlements.

The people in the photograph belong to the Mashco-Piro tribe. This tribe likely descends from a group that was attacked and displaced in 1894, when rubber baron Carlos Fermin Fitzcarrald encroached on their ancestral lands. Surviving members of the tribe maintain voluntary separation from the outside world, though oil exploration may be encroaching on their solitude, according to Survival International.

President Barack Obama, in a bid to reconcile with theTeheran regime, has blocked legislation that would hold Iran accountable forthe Hizbullah bombing that killed 241 U.S. Marines in 1983.

A survivors group has asserted that the administration is pressuringDemocrats in Congress not to support a bill that would enforce massivejudgements against Iran by the families of the Marines. In 2007, a U.S.federal district court judge found Iran liable for the Beirut bombing andordered Teheran to pay $2.65 billion in damages.

On an island off Britain's northern tip, new discoveries suggest a huge Stone Age ritual complex is older than Stonehenge.

But age is only the half of it. Researchers say the site may have in fact been the original model for Stonehenge and other later, better-known British complexes to the south.

First discovered in 2002, the waterside site—called the Ness of Brodgar ("Brodgar promontory")—lies on Mainland, the largest of Scotland's Orkney Islands (map).

According to recent radiocarbon dating of burned-wood remains, the Ness was first occupied around 3200 B.C. and went on to include up to a hundred buildings within a monumental walled enclosure.

By contrast, the earliest earthworks at Stonehenge date to about 3000 B.C. And it would be roughly another 500 years before the first of the famous stones were set on Salisbury Plain. (Interactive time line: "Stages of Stonehenge.")

The family of slain U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry charged Wednesday that the top federal prosecutor in Phoenix lied to them about the guns found at the crime scene in an attempt to hide the weapons' connection to the ATF's failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation.

Terry was killed in December 2010, allegedly by Mexican bandits carrying at least two AK-47 semiautomatic rifles that had been purchased in Arizona as part of Fast and Furious. The operation was intended to catch drug lords using illegal weapons, but the ATF immediately lost track of 1,700 firearms.

The Terry family alleged that then-U.S. Atty. Dennis K. Burke told them last March that the two weapons came from a store in Texas and were not part of Fast and Furious.

The Sub Sea Research, a company based in the northeastern US state of Maine, found the British ship SS Port Nicholson on the ocean floor around 30 miles off Provincetown, Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reported.

Greg Brooks of Sub Sea Research claims a US Treasury Department ledger shows platinum bars were on board, as part of a payment from the Soviet Union to the US for war supplies.

He also says he has video footage showing the platinum bars, although none of the bounty has been raised to the surface yet.

"I'm going to get it, one way or another, even if I have to lift the ship out of the water," he said.

"There's a good possibility there are about 10 tons of gold down there, too, and maybe some industrial diamonds," he added.

(One characteristic aspect of Special Forces that potential future guerrillas need to recognize the importance of is the ability to take the raw material of willing recruits to the resistance and train them to be combat effective. While every American male considers themselves to be a cosmopolitan blend of Carlos Hathcock, Buffalo Bill, and Daniel Morgan, all rolled into one fine piece of American marksmanship, the reality is, the vast majority of American gun-owners are pretty lousy marksmen under combat field conditions. The ability of the future resistance cadre to develop the willing material into a capable gunfighter will be instrumental in continuing the fight over the duration.

The following article is a fundamental outline I utilize when teaching close-quarters combat marksmanship to aspiring gunfighters. It is based largely on the doctrine of the 1st Special Warfare Training Group of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Training Center and School at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, as well as the methods used by me personally as an 18B when tasked with teaching foreign national personnel to utilize their personal weapons more efficiently.

While this particular POI focuses on close-quarters marksmanship, inside of 200 yards, in recognition of the need to “hug the enemy's belt and punch from the inside,” it is not intended to suggest that my aforementioned emphasis on being able to engage hostiles from 0-500 yards is any less valid.

It is not a set-in-stone type of POI outline. It is one SF soldier's interpretation, based on experiences in irregular warfare, of what the critical skills are to run a rifle and sidearm in combat. Use what you like, discard the rest. --J.M.)

First, President Obama informed us that we are lazy. Then Barack informed us that we are soft. Then the liberal savior from Chicago informed us that we have simply lost our ambition to do great things. Now, First Lady Michelle Obama is informing America that we are confused – too stupid to understand the greatness of her husband and his mighty accomplishments! In so doing, Michelle is uniting with her enlightened husband to perform an Obama rendition of an American malaise duet – sure to be a smash-hit with liberal progressives everywhere!

Michelle Obama’s assertion that those who are disappointed with Barack Obama, the direction he has taken our country and the lack of positive results he has produced was made during an interview with Gayle Kings.

Gayle Kings told Michelle Obama, “Some people say they are disappointed in Barrack Obama’s presidency, that it hasn’t accomplished all they thought that it would or all that he said it would.”

A few days before his big moment, Patch caught up with groundhog General Beauregard Lee, Georgia's official weather prognosticator, at the Yellow River Game Ranch in Lilburn.

Organizers have been busy getting his white-columned mansion, Weathering Heights, spruced up for this morning, when hundreds of visitors will turn up to see whether Beau predicts an early spring or six more weeks of winter.

The general himself was pretty relaxed, and didn't seem too bothered about the big day. After all, he's been doing this for years, and the National Weather Service has given him two commendations for his accurate predictions. He also has two honorary doctorates: "DWP, Doctor of Weather Prognostication" from the University of Georgia and "Doctor of Southern Groundology" from Georgia State University, according to the Yellow River Game Ranch.

As you know, if Beau sees his shadow when he emerges from his mansion Thursday morning, we're in for at least six more weeks of winter here in the southeast. If he doesn't, spring is just around the corner.

Patch spoke with the general about the chance of an early spring and his rival, Punxsutawney Phil. Beau's not the talkative sort, at least he wasn't on this sunny afternoon, but have a look at the video and tell us what you think.

Nobel Peace Prize officials were facing a formal inquiry over accusations they have drifted away from the prize’s original selection criteria by choosing such winners as President Barack Obama, as the nomination deadline for the 2012 awards closed Wednesday.

The investigation comes after persistent complaints by a Norwegian peace researcher that the original purpose of the prize was to diminish the role of military power in international relations.

If the Stockholm County Administrative Board, which supervises foundations in Sweden’s capital, finds that prize founder Alfred Nobel’s will is not being honored, it has the authority to suspend award decisions going back three years – though that would be unlikely and unprecedented, said Mikael Wiman, a legal expert working for the county.

On display through the end of March 2012 at the Martinsville Henry County Heritage Center and Museum in the old Henry County Courthouse in Martinsville, Virginia, which is operated by the Martisville Henry County Historical Society.

The following graph demonstrates the dramatic growth of dependency on federal government benefits. Given the rapid increase in the established trend, any day now at least one person in more than half of all households in America will be receiving some type of government assistance. The current federal debt of $15.3 trillion is greater than the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and is increasing by more than $1 trillion annually.

Remembrance

To die for one’s country is not only an act of bravery, it is THE act of bravery. For soldiers, it is just an extension of their military career, a part of their duty. As leaders have asked their soldiers to sacrifice themselves for the good of the society, it is only right for leaders to go through the same motion. They should practice what they have preached.

As war is seen as a noble act, tu sat serves as redemption in case of defeat. It is also a way to tell the enemy: “You might have won the battle/war but you don’t deserve to win because you don’t have the chinh nghia (just cause).” And it is not only just cause: it is the moral belief that the cause they are fighting for deserves their total sacrifice. Continues below

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Core Creek Militia

==============================My sixth great grandfather, his wife, and five of his six children were killed in battle with the Tuscarora Indians at Core Creek, NC.

The Seven Blackbirds

==============================My third great grandfather was an Ensign in the Revolutionary War, and saved his unit's flag after being wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. He was also at Kingston (Kinston), Wilmington, Charleston, Two Sisters and Augusta. He was at the defeat at Brier Creek and also Bee Creek.

Requiem Aeternam -
Eternal Rest Grant unto Them
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My second great grandfather was killed in action on May 3, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
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My great grandfather and great uncle knew all the men in the "Civil War Requiem" video as they were part of the 53rd NC which was the sole unit defending Fort Mahone. (Fort Mahone was named "Fort Damnation" by the Yankees) *Handpicked men of the 53rd (My great grandfather was one of these) made the final, night assault at Petersburg in an attempt to break Grant's line. This was against Fort Stedman which was a few miles to the slight northeast. They initially succeeded, but reinforcements drove them back. This video is made from photographs which were taken the day after the 53rd evacuated the lines the night before to begin the retreat to Appomattox. I have many more pictures taken by the same photographer, one of these shows a 14 year old boy and the other is the famous picture of the blond, handsome soldier with his musket.
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*General Gordon promised the men a gold medal and 30 days leave if they accomplished their task and many years after the War my great grandfather wrote General Gordon, who was then governor of Georgia about this incident. They exchanged several letters which I have framed. See first link below.
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*The Attack On Fort Stedman
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"His Colored Friends"
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Lee's Surrender
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My Black NC Kinfolks
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Punished For Being Caught!

Great Grandfather Koonce

He was a drummer boy in the WBTS, survived the War only to die a few years later. He was caught in an ice storm on his way home, but instead of seeking shelter, continued on his horse until the end. His clothes had to be cut off and he died a few days later.